Lie
"Lies! All lies! You are the greatest liar I have ever met!" ::- Garth of Izar A lie is a deliberate statement which is untrue, usually as a means to deceive or mislead another individual. Someone who told a lie is called a "liar". One of the great myths surrounding Vulcans was that the race was incapable of telling a lie. While generally believed to be accurate, Vulcans were in fact capable of telling lies, usually justifying this action as a logical course towards a means to an end. An example of this would be lying to carry out a secret mission or lying to protect the lives of others. Both Spock and Valeris were capable of lying, although Valeris' motives were somewhat dubious. Tuvok admitted that the notion Vulcans could not lie was a myth and that he had not found a logical need to lie, after an inquiry by Seven of Nine into whether or not they were capable of lying. ( ; ; ; ) In 2268, the crew of the were forced to once again deal with "Harry" Mudd, a con artist that they had had previous dealings with. These dealings ultimately provided an opportunity to confuse an android, Norman, who had been posing as a member of the ship's crew. Describing Mudd to Norman, James T. Kirk stated "Everything Harry tells you is a lie. Remember that. Everything Harry tells you is a lie." Mudd then told the android "Listen to this carefully, Norman. I am lying," trapping the android with a version of the and eventually leading to a breakdown due to a flood of illogic. ( ) Miranda Jones once called James T. Kirk a liar, proclaiming, "It's a lie!" when Kirk stated that Jones had tried to murder Spock while mind melding with a Medeusan. ( ) Garth of Izar once said that Marta was "the greatest liar I have ever met," when she claimed to have written a verse from a play by William Shakespeare. ( ) Lying after having sworn an oath to tell the truth is known as perjury. ( ) On the planet , Q was known as the "God of Lies". ( ) Data once told that androids do not lie; however, Data himself was very capable of lying. Data once lied to the entire crew of the , regarding an incident wherein the Paxans erased the memories of the Enterprise s crew (except for Data) due to a xenophobic fear bordering on the extreme. Data also once lied to an entire bar full of patrons in an effort to make Ro Laren appear as a Maquis sympathizer, as part of an elaborate plan to infiltrate a local resistance cell. In both of these cases, however, Data was acting under direct orders and not by his own design. Data also lied to Samuel Clemens about the purpose of a machine he was building when displaced in time, most likely in accordance with Starfleet's temporal displacement policy. ( ) When the was thrown back to 2063, Data was captured by the Borg Queen, who grafted skin onto him. When Data cradled the skin, he stated he was doing so simply because he was imitating the behavior of Humans and the Queen commented "You're becoming more Human all the time. Now you're learning how to lie." ( ) Data's brother, Lore, also possessed the capability to lie and lied to Data about which of them had been constructed first. ( ) Like Data, The Doctor, another artificial lifeform, was capable of lying. When queried regarding this matter by Seska in 2373, he told her "I've learned that a bedside manner occasionally requires me to, how should I put it, soft-pedal the truth. But bald-faced lying, calculated deceit? I don't have much experience with that sort of thing." This, however, was itself a lie, as The Doctor's continued operation on the was itself a deception designed to allow The Doctor to attempt to sabotage Seska and the Kazon's efforts to retain control of the ship. Later, when Seska discovered his ruse, she told him that he was more talented in deception than he led her to believe and he replied that he was inspired by the presence of a master. ( ) The Brekkians built their symbiotic partnership with the Ornarans up on a lie, claiming felicium is a medicine instead of a drug. ( ) When Elim Garak was in danger of dying due to a malfunctioning cranial implant, he told Doctor Julian Bashir a number of conflicting stories regarding his past. After the danger had passed, Bashir asked of him which of the stories were true and which weren't. Garak replied that they all were true and Bashir asked "Even the lies?", to which Garak responded "Especially the lies." ( ) When the Romulan Ruwon was interrogating Quark, he told him he thought he was lying. Quark asked about which part and Ruwon replied "All of it," to which Quark responded that he was at least consistent. ( ) In 2372, when Lieutenant commander Worf confronted a Changeling posing as General (believed by all at time to be the real Martok) regarding the actions of his troops such as detaining and searching ships in neutral space, "Martok" replied that what he had done was in the best interest of the Alpha Quadrant. Worf was not impressed, stating "You must think me a fool to make your lies so transparent." ( ) In 2373, when Elim Garak decoded a secret Cardassian transmission, a Changeling posing as Doctor caught him in a lie that it was a five-year-old planetary survey report. When Garak then suggested that they steal a runabout to search for Enabran Tain, "Bashir" replied "You want me to lie to my commanding officer, violate Starfleet regulations, and go with you on a mission into the Gamma Quadrant which will probably get us both killed?" Later, when Garak went on said mission with Worf, he spun a story about wanting to attend Starfleet Academy. When Worf realized that Garak really had no desire to attend Starfleet Academy, he asked Garak what the reason was for all the deception, and Garak replied that "lying is a skill like any other, and if you want to maintain a level of excellence, you have to practice constantly." Worf told him to practice on someone else. ( ) In 2374, Captain Benjamin Sisko concocted an elaborate plan to draw the Romulan Star Empire into the Dominion War. Although the plan was approved by Starfleet Command, Sisko commented in a later deleted personal log that "I was the one who had to look Senator Vreenak in his eye and convince him that a lie was the truth." Later, in the same deleted log, he stated "So... I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover up the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But most damning of all... I think I can live with it... And if I had to do it all over again... I would." ( ) The Ferengi have a saying that "A good lie is easier to believe than the truth." 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